A former tax lawyer from Brownsburg pleaded guilty to cheating on his own taxes to the tune of more than $1.5 million, federal law enforcement officials said.

Scott C. Cole, 54, pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal charge of tax evasion for failing to report more than $1.5 million in income he made in 2001-2002, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Josh J. Minkler announced in a news release Friday.

After an Internal Revenue Service audit, the tax court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found that Cole owed more than $1 million in taxes and penalties "stemming from Cole’s fraudulent omission of over $1.5 million of income from his individual tax returns," the news release said.

Over the next 16 years, authorities said Cole took steps to avoid paying the tax bill, including dealing mostly in cash and hiding money in bank accounts in his relatives' names and in the names of companies he controlled.